14 DAY TRIAL // A report in the Japanese industry newspaper The Semiconductor Industry News has suggested that the central processing units that will be at the heart of the new PlayStation Vita handheld from Sony will be manufactured by Samsung.
No other information about the manufacturing process or about the specifications of the CPU were posted on the official site of the publication.
Sony and Samsung have refused to offer any confirmation of these rumors.
It seems that the chip will use a 45 nanometer manufacturing process, similar to what players can find at the moment in the redesigned version of the PlayStation 3 home console from Sony and Xbox 360 from Microsoft.
Externalizing the manufacturing process for the PlayStation Vita central processing unit is a change for Sony, which has created the CPU for the current PlayStation Portable in its own factories.
Samsung is also currently creating the ARM based Apple A4 and A5 chips, to be found in the iPhone and the iPad.
Sony has big plans for the PlayStation Vita and is aiming to recapture the lead in the handheld market from Nintendo with its new device.
The Vita is a top-of-the-line device, including an OLED screen and touch screen capabilities but also offers more traditional control options, all of them ready to work with game experiences that developers are saying will be just one notch under the level of quality offered on the PlayStation 3 home console.
The Vita is at the moment set to launch on at least one major market before the end of 2011 and will cost 250 dollars on launch.
Considering that the Nintendo 3DS has been performing worse than expected since its March launch, Sony might have a big opportunity to deliver the handheld that will dominate the market for the coming years.
Of course, there's also the possibility that the new handheld will see its chances at success slashed by pressure from the iPhone and Android phones.